A Tree Sparrow Arrives

This morning we saw our first arrival of a winter sparrow a Tree Sparrow.

My husband said there is the Song Sparrow on a feeder and |I replied, maybe its a Tree Sparrow as the Song Sparrows are typically ground feeders and I seldom see one feeding from a feeder.  So I took a picture so that I could examine the features of the sparrow more closely.  And yes!  It was a Tree Sparrow!!!!!  How wonderful, birds changing with the season!!!

I always look for two distinguishing features to identify a Tree Sparrow with.  First Tree Sparrows have a dark breast spot and in this photo it is easy to see , and secondly their bill is bi-coloured as can be seen in the photo.  The bottom part of their bill is yellow!!!    So now you'll be able to identify a Tree Sparrow by finding these two features on a visiting Tree Sparrow.  We still have had a Song Sparrow hanging around this week so I hope it shows up again today and I can document that also.

If your view does not allow you to see the dark breast spot then check out the bill colour. Just a confusing note to mention.  A Song Sparrow also has a center breast spot , so double checking the bi-coloured bill is an important feature.